Serving tray

ABSTRACT

A serving tray comprising a planar member coated with a nonslip material for bearing food items and a periphery extending substantially upwards with respect to the planar member. A handle extending outwards from a bottom surface of the planar member, for receiving a portion of user&#39;s hand in order to provide a firm grip and a plurality of short leg members positioned on the bottom surface for supporting the serving tray when placed on a flat surface.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention generally relates to trays used for serving foodand beverages. More particularly relates to a serving tray comprising abottom handle for firm holding of the tray using a single hand and legmembers for supporting the tray when placed on a flat surface.

2. Description of Related Art

Serving trays are generally used for placing and carrying food items toa table or from one location to another location. In designing servingtrays, various features have been implemented to ensure that the servingtrays are easily nestable and stackable, and that they are easilycleaned and disinfected. However, learning to correctly balance and usea serving tray, particularly when loading and unloading objects or fooditems from the tray is a difficult task especially for users such aswaiters and servants.

In places like crowded restaurants, eateries, lounges, hotels and otherrelated service industries, servers are usually required to carryheavily laden trays by balancing them on one hand. It requires asignificant amount of experience before the average person is capable ofbalancing a laden tray on one hand and carrying it through a crowdedroom. Because of crowded conditions, a necessity to serve quickly, andslippery nature of serving trays, servers often lose their grip orbalance of the serving tray and tend to spill the tray contents ontable, floor or on customers. Lose of grip over the serving tray usuallyresult in broken glassware, wasted food and customer grievances, whichultimately lead to loss of revenue.

With existing tray designs, the tray is held by placing an armunderneath the serving tray in a fixed position, which does not allowstretching of the elbow without the losing the orientation of theserving tray. As a result, the user needs to compensate in the back, thehips or the knees to bring the serving tray to table height. Moreover,these serving trays rest on its entire base when placed on a flatsurface. Carrying the serving tray by holding at an edge does not offerenough balance, especially when the tray is completely loaded with fooditems.

There is presently a need for a more efficient serving tray withimproved features that would enhance a user's abilities to carry, placeon a flat surface and to stack over other similar type of trays.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a serving tray for serving food andbeverages, the tray comprises a planar member for bearing food items anda periphery extending substantially upwards with respect to the planarmember for protecting the food items from sliding out of the planarmember. The serving tray further comprises a handle extending outwardsfrom a bottom surface of the planar member and a plurality of basesupport members positioned on the bottom surface of the planar member.

In an embodiment, each of the base support members comprises acylindrical short leg extending outwards from the bottom surface. Thecylindrical short legs are positioned adjacent to an outer edge of thebottom surface of the planar member for providing stability to the tray.The planar member is substantially circular or rectangular and made ofmetal or thermoplastic material. The handle may comprise a U-shapedbracket extending outwards from the bottom surface of the planar memberfor receiving a portion of user's hand.

Other objects, features and advantages of the present disclosure willbecome apparent from the following detailed description. It should beunderstood, however, that the detailed description and the specificexamples, while indicating specific embodiments of the disclosure, aregiven by way of illustration only, since various changes andmodifications within the spirit and scope of the disclosure will becomeapparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates the serving tray in an inverted position.

FIG. 2A is a top perspective view of the serving tray.

FIG. 2B is a sectional view of the serving tray of FIG. 2A.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF DIFFERENT EMBODIMENTS

A description of embodiments of the present disclosure will now be givenwith reference to the Figures. It is expected that the presentdisclosure may be embodied in other specific forms without departingfrom its spirit or essential characteristics. The described embodimentsare to be considered in all respects only as illustrative and notrestrictive. The scope of the disclosure is, therefore indicated by theappended claims rather than by the foregoing description. All changesthat come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims areto be embraced within their scope.

Referring to FIG. 1, showing a bottom surface of a serving tray 100 inan inverted position, according to an embodiment of the presentinvention. The serving tray 100 comprises a handle 110 extendingoutwards from a bottom surface 106 of a planar member 102. In anembodiment, the handle 110 comprises a U-shaped bracket extending outperpendicularly to the axis of the planar member 102. The handle member110 is configured to receive a portion of the user's hand for holdingthe tray 100. In an embodiment, the handle is centrally positioned onthe bottom surface 106 of the planar member 102. For example, the handlemember 110 is configured to receive a portion of palm and fingers of theuser's hand. The U-shaped bracket allows the user to hold the tray bywrapping fingers and thumb of one hand around the bracket.

The bottom surface 106 of the serving tray 100 further comprises aplurality of base support members 112 for supporting the serving tray100 when placed on a flat surface such as a table or kitchen countertop.In an embodiment, the base support member 112 comprises a cylindricalshort leg extending outwards from the bottom surface 106 of the servingtray 100. The serving tray 100 when placed on a flat surface, the basemembers 112 provide sufficient clearance from the flat surface. In anembodiment, the base support members 112 are positioned within an outeredge 109 of the bottom surface 106 of the planar member 102.

FIG. 2A shows a top perspective view of the serving tray 100, comprisingthe planar member 102 with a top surface 103 for bearing food items andother products such as beverages, glassware, dishes and the like. Theserving tray 100 further comprises a periphery 104, which extendssubstantially upwards and outwards with respect to the planar member102. In an embodiment, the periphery 104 extends outward in an obtuseangle with respect to the top surface 103 of the planar member 102,configured to protect the food items or tray contents from sliding outof the serving tray 100.

The top surface 103 of the planar member comprise an outer coating 108made using a nonslip material such as rubber, for providing sufficientgrip to the tray contents and also to prevent noise created due toclinking of tray contents such as ceramic or metal wares. The servingtray 100 of the present invention can be made of a material selectedfrom metal and plastic including thermoplastics. In an embodiment, theserving tray is manufactured using a polycarbonate material.

FIG. 2B shows a sectional view of the serving tray 100 resulting fromcutting along the line 2B-2B as shown in FIG. 2A. The periphery 104extends outward in an obtuse angle with respect to the planar member102. In an embodiment, the handle 110, planar member 102 and theperiphery 104 are manufactured as a single molded piece.

Referring again to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the base members 112 offer greaterstability when placed on a flat surface and enables easy stacking overother similar trays. The handle 110 in the middle of the planar member102 allows the user to hold and balance the tray 100, even in acompletely loaded condition. The height of the base members 112 islesser than the height of the handle 110, such that when the tray 100 isplaced on a flat surface such as a table, there is a space between thehandle and the flat surface.

The serving tray 100 can be manufactured by molding as a single piece orcan be molded as modular parts, which can be assembled together. Theserving tray 100 is preferably manufactured using a material that isdishwasher safe and easy to clean. In an embodiment, the serving tray100 is of a round shape with a diameter in the range of 10 inches to 3feet. In an alternative embodiment, the serving tray 100 may berectangular or oval. The handle 112 will enable the server or waiter tohold the tray 100 in one hand and to keep the tray 100 from tipping outof control and spilling of tray contents including food items.

Stability and balance is of prime importance while carrying the servingtray 100. With an optimal stability, the person who carries the servingtray 100 needs to correct and to compensate less. As a result, the taskof supporting the tray is less tiring, which leads to better servingperformance, for instance due to a reduced risk of spilling food orfalling crockery. The stability of the serving tray 100 depends onvarious factors, such as for instance the stiffness of the serving tray100 and the positioning of the crockery, food items on the serving tray.With the present invention, the handle 110 is placed near the center ofgravity of the serving tray 100, in order to provide efficiently balanceespecially when the tray is loaded with dishes or food items of varioussizes and weight.

The foregoing description comprises illustrative embodiments of thepresent disclosure. Having thus described exemplary embodiments of thepresent disclosure, it should be noted by those skilled in the art thatthe within disclosures are exemplary only, and that various otheralternatives, adaptations, and modifications may be made within thescope of the present disclosure. Many modifications and otherembodiments of the disclosure will come to mind to one skilled in theart to which this disclosure pertains having the benefit of theteachings presented in the foregoing descriptions. Although specificterms may be employed herein, they are used only in generic anddescriptive sense and not for purposes of limitation. Accordingly, thepresent disclosure is not limited to the specific embodimentsillustrated herein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A serving tray comprising: A planar member forbearing products and a periphery extending substantially upwards withrespect to the planar member; a handle extending outwards from a bottomsurface of the planar member; and a plurality of base support memberspositioned on the bottom surface of the planar member.
 2. The servingtray of claim 1, wherein the handle comprises a U-shaped bracketconfigured to receive a portion of a user's hand.
 3. The serving tray ofclaim 1, wherein the each of the base support members comprises acylindrical short leg extending outwards from the bottom surface.
 4. Theserving tray of claim 1, wherein the base support members are positionedwithin an outer edge of the bottom surface of the planar member.
 5. Theserving tray of claim 1, is made of a material selected from metal andplastic.
 6. The serving tray of claim 5, wherein the material comprisespolycarbonate.
 7. The serving tray of claim 1, wherein the planar memberis coated with a nonslip material.
 8. The serving tray of claim 1,wherein the handle is centrally positioned on the bottom surface of theplanar member.